This wasn’t exactly the most surprising item to hit our multiple timelines, which is probably why I didn’t even notice until late yesterday what the more observant among y’all might have picked up on Good Friday courtesy of ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez :
Main Street Sports Group, the flailing regional sports network that emerged from bankruptcy with more financial troubles, has informed NBA and NHL teams that it will cease operations at the end of their respective seasons, freeing an additional 20 teams from their local media contracts.
Main Street runs its broadcasts under the name FanDuel Sports Network and began 2026 with 29 NBA, NHL and MLB teams in its portfolio. On the verge of spring training, though, all nine of the MLB teams shed their local media contracts with them. Thirteen NBA teams will follow when their regular seasons conclude on April 12. Seven NHL teams will officially do the same at the conclusion of the first round of the playoffs later that month.
SPORTS BUSINESS JOURNAL’s Tom Friend provided the appropriate context for how exactly a fait d’accompli this all was:
While it was almost a forgone conclusion for months, Main Street’s lenders on Thursday officially signed the paperwork to wind down the business — for the NBA on the last day of its regular season April 12 and for the NHL after any of its seven teams (the Hurricanes, Blue Jackets, Red Wings, Kings, Wild, Predators and Blues) finish the first round of the playoffs. The NHL opening round is expected to begin April 18, with all of the best of seven series likely to end by the end of the month or conceivably early May.
For the record, each of those remaining hockey teams are still in contention for their playoffs–you remaining puckheads in the Lou and La-La Land can thank some opportunistic wins over the last few days for at least keeping the Kings and Blues in contention. So we get to watch as the balance of your network disintegrates piece-by-piece in the process. Last week the Golic and Golic talk show that attempted to resurrect a failed ESPN morning radio effort was put out of its misery in a matter of hours; the Ringer-verse video podcasts that were not broad enough in appeal for Netflix had already been pulled days before. So now there’s even more encore presentations and infomercials for you to avail yourself of.
As Friend points out, the real action is likely to occur once the actual games have ended:
The development is a prelude to seismic change in the local TV industry, with the NBA, for instance, telling the Hawks, Hornets, Cavaliers, Pistons, Pacers, Clippers, Grizzlies, Heat, Bucks, T’Wolves, Thunder, Magic and Spurs that they can begin signing new in-market deals for the 2026-27 season, which is tantamount to a free-for-all.
For linear — where the rights fees will likely be under $10M annually — many of those teams could either switch to local over-the-air channels or their own in-house networks, such as the Cavaliers’ Rock Entertainment Sports Network. For streaming (and even linear, as well), the NBA is urging teams to sign one-year deals or packages with at least a one-year exit clause, in the event the league does not launch a national streaming platform until the 2027-28 season.
Because of that one-year gap, platforms such as DAZN, Victory+, ViewLift and Kiswe are trying to pounce now on the 13 available NBA teams, with DAZN most notably hoping to show its viability with local broadcasts for one season – and then bidding to house the national streaming hub whenever the league is ready…DAZN’s competition for the national RSN, though, could be the more established Amazon, YouTube TV or even the ESPN app.
But here’s where at least I sat up and took notice:
(S)ources said YouTube TV has shown particular interest, and a key connection could be YouTube TV’’s Managing Director, Head of Sports and Live Partnerships Jen Chun – who until Sept. of 2024, was the NBA’s EVP, head of content partnerships, working alongside the league’s media lead Bill Koenig…sources said YouTube TV may only be interested if at least 20 teams join the national platform and even more so if those 20 teams don’t have coinciding linear deals — meaning customers leaguewide would badly covet the streaming-only YouTube TV package.
As of now, those 13 Main Street NBA teams are the most likely candidates to join a streaming RSN, along with five former RSN teams – the Suns, Jazz, Mavericks, Trail Blazers and Pelicans. The final few —to get to 20-plus —could be NBC’s RSN teams such as the Celtics, Warriors, Sixers and Kings.
Yep, that’s the very same Jen Chun that I knew as a rising star in charge of deal-making for the RSNs about to become history when FOX was competently running them and taking full advantage of their reach and appeal to not only make beaucoup bucks in their own right but also build out the balance of their networks, including the fledgling FX that employed me. I know darn well what she’s capable of doing, and if anyone knows where the pain points are in those businesses, she’s it.
With all due respect to the primarily tanking teams playing out the string this week on those Main Street channels, that’s the action I’m really looking forward to. If I could afford it, I’d drop a dime or two on Chun–I’d advise if you can you should. But most definitely not via FanDuel. They’d more than likely screw it up just like they did their networks.
Courage…